Getting Better All The Time...

Once again, the majority of my weekend was devoted to working on our new condo. I dedicated yesterday (theater-going aside) to a suburban shopping journey in which I selected new rugs, picked up crafting supplies to make a "floral" arrangement for our new dining room (I use air quotes there because it will consists mostly of dried sticks), and, of course, made one of the many, many Home Depot trips that have already happened and will continue to happen for the foreseeable future. Today, I met Mom over at the condo for another day of manual labor (no Justin today, as he had to work.)

I tackled the jacuzzi again, putting it through another two cleaning cycles until I ran out of Cascade, and am happy to report that it was only putting out a few negligible pieces of debris by the time I was finished. It's not perfect, but the huge chunks of brown mold are gone and it's come a long way since I started this process two weeks ago. I'm ready to proclaim victory at last -- it only took nine cycles to get it acceptably clean...

The clean jacuzzi. At least I can take solace in the fact that it won't require so much water to fill it when there is a body in it to displace some of the volume.

In other bleach-related news, I removed all the shelves and drawers from the refrigerator and sanitized them, and the inside of the fridge, with a bleach solution. I didn't have a chance to get to the freezer yet, but the fridge is now move-in ready.

Mom spent the day cleaning grease from the tops of our kitchen cabinets (which nobody will ever see, unless they are standing on our kitchen counters, but at least we have the satisfaction of knowing they're clean, I suppose), as well as painting the area over the cabinets. This latter development means that our kitchen/living/dining room is very nearly finished, with the exception of only the window wells. I'm really pleased with how the color combination came out, and I think Mom and Justin did a great job with it.


I also tackled a few small projects for the day, such as putting felt sliders on our dining room furniture, which was delivered on Thursday while Mom and Justin were there working and I was at the office. I'm really happy with the furniture I picked out from Dania -- our dining room table serves six, and expands to fit up to ten guests, which will be perfect for entertaining and hosting dinner parties. I got a deal on the matching buffet table, as they had a floor sample for sale in the same finish, and saving money is always a good feeling. Finally, I'm glad I decided to go with upholstered chairs instead of solid wood, because our room was starting to feel a little wood-centric, between the dining room furniture, the Brazilian cherry floors, the cherry cabinets, the giant wenge entertainment center, and a wenge bookshelf that I hope to put in the room as well. The neutral fabric helps break things up a little, in addition to creating some nice texture.

I still have to hang the artwork I have picked out for this space, but the dining alcove is currently the most complete space in our new home.

Lastly, I arranged the curly willow for the vase on the buffet table, which I found at a furniture outlet store that was going out of business (where I also got my nightstands, but you won't get to see those until we officially move and there's actually some other furniture in the bedroom besides just those.) The vase appealed to me because it has circles on it (aesthetically, I love anything circle-themed, and you'll probably notice that as a common theme in my decorating), and I really love the texture it brings to the area. Initially, I was worried about the height of the curly willow, and had thought about trimming it down, but given the scale of our ceilings, I think the dramatic height of it really works. I'm going to have to rethink how I'm going to hang the three photos that I have picked out for that wall, but I think it's worth tweaking my vision.

It's great to have some observable progress under our belts, but when I stop and think about the fact that we still have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a ton of packing ahead of us, I start to get seriously overwhelmed. I'm going to have to forgo a lot of my usual Christmas traditions this year, including my usual decorating and my annual cookie exchange. I know it will be worth it in the end, to be sharing a space I love with the man I love, but I can't help be a little sad over the sacrifices I'm making this holiday season. I just hope I can figure out a way to make my annual Cookie Bonanza happen this year. I'm not willing to let that one fall by the wayside just yet. In the meantime, I'm going to try to focus on one task at a time, and not think too hard about everything that needs to get done...